SHAWNEE—Five athletes with Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) ties will be representing five nations in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, which starts Aug. 5.
Former OBU track athletes Michael Rodgers, Nickeisha Wilson and Akela Jones and swimmers AJ Barbar and Ines Remersaro compete in many events.
Rodgers represents Team USA in the men’s 4×100 relay. Wilson is in the women’s 100 meter hurdles for Jamaica and Akela Jones represents Barbados in the heptathlon.
Barbar, representing Lebanon, swims the men’s 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly while Remersaro swims the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and 50 freestyle for Uruguay.
It is the second Olympics for Remersaro.
Other Bison just missed the cut. FINA determined Mexico’s swim team and did not include Daniel Ramirez. In track, Elizabeth Dadzie had Ghana’s best heptathlon score but not enough points to make the Olympic cut. Blake Bartlett was second in the 200 in the Bahamas trials but did not have a wind-legal time for the Olympic standards. He also was an alternate on the 4×100 but the team did not meet Olympic standards. Gayon Evans missed the Jamaican team by one spot.
Rodgers was a four-time national champion and five-time All-American as a senior at Oklahoma Baptist in 2007 and still holds five school records. He also has won two USATF indoor championships.
Jones claimed nine OBU records, 12 national championships and 19 All-America honors before transferring to Kansas State after the 2014 season. She since won two more national titles at the NCAA Division I level.
Wilson still owns the indoor 400 hurdles record at OBU and was a three-time national champion and seven-time All-American at OBU before transferring to LSU, where she won three more national titles and nine more All-American honors in 2007-08.
Remersaro is a three-time national champion and 10-time All-American and holds seven OBU records.
Barbar holds two OBU records in the 200 meter free and 200 meter medley relays.
Track and Field in Rio runs Aug. 12-20 and swimming goes from Aug. 6-12.
